Chapter 14- 50 Ways to Embarrass Yourself in a Haunted House
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, they belong to MysteryBen27 and company. I merely own my own ideas and this laptop.
"So you're Lewis's friend?" my dad inquired between bites of lasagna. "Vivi, right?"
"Yep," she replied, chipper as usual. "I'm from his Math class."
"It's Algebra Honors," I corrected. We all sat at the dining table in the kitchen, my father across from me and Vivi to my left. My mother had disappeared off to the bathroom. I sheepishly took bites of my lasagna while my dad kept interrogating Vivi, who was answering between bites. She said she would feel nervous having to hold conversations with my prying parents, but from the looks of it, she was doing just fine.
"Thanks for having me over, I wouldn't have anything to do if I hadn't been invited over. It's really nice of you," she confided. "And this food is great!"
"Thank his mother for that," my dad stated, gesturing over to me. My cheeks reddened just a little from the attention. "So what do you two have in common? Similar hobbies?"
I shot and urgent glare at my father, as a warning that he was asking too much, but he completely ignored me. After setting down her fork, Vivi answered, "We both like horror stories and ghosts. And it's pretty much all we talk about!" she forced a chuckle, quickly shoving in another bite of food.
She really was nervous! I was surprised because it was hard to tell. But how was she holding up so well? I stopped eating for a second to ponder about all the times my social anxiety got me into uncomfortable situations. Like the time I fell asleep in the back of my Aunt Maria's car and was too scared to speak up about it until they drove all the way back to their house an hour away. Or the time I got locked in the bathroom at my elementary school. Or the time I really needed a bathroom break as a kid but was too afraid to ask, leading to... Well, accidents. Or all of the times I messed up my English and Italian as a child. I could name many more examples, but I'd rather not go into detail. The point was, Vivi seemed to do much better under pressure than I did.
"Have you ever been to this haunted house before? The one we're going to after dinner?" Vivi asked, adjusting her pink-tinted glasses.
"Ah yes, it's not that far away and Lewis's mother and I have been there quite a few times. It's pretty nice, lots of gore and scares. Lewis here hasn't ever gone though, because he likes being cooped up in that bedroom of his so much." My face grew as red as a fire hydrant at the mention of my antisocial habits. "It's really spooky. Will you be able to handle the horrors, miss?"
"Totally, I love horror! It'll be a breeze. The question is, will Lewis be brave enough to cope the spooks?" the blue haired girl jested along, chortling as she took another bite of lasagna.
"Probably," I said, swallowing down my food. For once I was almost finished before Vivi, the eating machine. Which was pretty surprising, but it was most likely because she was trying to uphold a conversation with my dad, as wacky as he was.
"Well, I'm done," my father sighed contently as he stood up and took his plate over to the dishwasher. "Phew, that hit the spot!" he announced as he wandered off into the living room.
"You got that right," Vivi grinned as she set down her fork, chuckling over my awed expression. "Oh my gosh, your face is priceless!"
I exclaimed, "How are you already done? You had half of your lasagna left not even a second ago!"
"The world may never know," she intoned mischievously. "By the way, your dad's kinda cool!"
I tried to cover up my laughter, but to no avail as I burst into giggles. "My dad, cool? You must be kidding!"
"Well, I think he's just fine! He seems to share my interest in gory movies, unlike you! Plus he appears to be way more eccentric than my dad. My dad's always at work or at a meeting. Trust me, yours is way cooler." my blue haired friend retorted.
"Eh, he's a bit weird," I mumbled as I continued eating. My dad wasn't just a bit weird. He was really weird. He stuck out like a sore thumb in the world of dads, besides the usual crappy dad jokes. My father wasn't that interested in sports, he would rather go to a Marvel convention or see the latest gory horror flick in a movie theater. He had a plethora of old "vintage," comic books stored in the very back of the basement and he'd always go down there to flip through them and would sit there reading for hours. And the only sport he was remotely interested in was soccer. My dad wasn't the strangest person in my extended family by far, but he certainly had a unique personality. And by unique, I mean completely wacky.
Vivi rolled her eyes and huffed. "Whatever, are we gonna go to that haunted house or what? I can't wait to get the crap scared out of me! Or at least see them try.."
"My mom's still taking her sweet, precious time in the bathroom, and she hasn't touched her food at all so it'll probably be a while," I informed her, getting up to set my now empty plate in the dishwasher. "You wanna go to my room and hang around or something until she's done?"
"Sure, as long as it's clean. Most boys' rooms look like a tornado went through it. That's how the guest bedroom looks whenever my brother visits home from the university."
"I assure you, my room is clean. Mostly clean," I added, chuckling deeply.
"Oh dear," Vivi sighed exasperatedly as we headed down the hallway.
To my luck, my bedroom was actually clean that day. It usually was clean, but every now and then it would look like a pigsty when I was too busy reading to clean up. My room wasn't too big, but it wasn't too small. The walls were painted a light blue, I had blankets with intricate red and black patters on my bed, and my dresser was a pearly white. So my bedroom was very mismatched, but it was still clean and comfortable, which was all I needed. In the back corner of the room was wooden computer desk with my beloved laptop on it. Other than that and a book case, of course, I didn't have much stuff in my bedroom, so there was a good amount of space on the floor.
"Wow, your bedroom is practically bare!" Vivi exclaimed as she plopped down on the floor, where a pale blue carpet laid. "Your room is cleaner than mine!"
Blushing, I explained, "Well I'm usually sitting on my laptop or reading, so I guess that makes sense. By the way, you can totally sit in my computer chair if you want. It feels weird talking to you while you're sprawled out on the floor and I'm already," I chuckled lightly.
Taking a seat on the black, leathery office chair, the cotton candy blue haired girl confided, "Man, this chair is sooooo comfy! I might have to steal it!"
"You better not, that chair is one of my most valuable possessions!" I joked. "And speaking of which, I still haven't even gotten my jacket back!" I blurted out, instantly growing quiet because I thought I might've been a bit rude.
"Oh right! Silly me! I have it at my house, so I'll just bring it to ya on Monday." she said nonchalantly, taking off her glasses for a brief second to clean them off with her sweater. She looked like a completely different person without the glasses on, and that somehow added to the intense blush growing on my face. Suddenly, her eyes lit up. "We should have a competition! Whoever flinches or gets frightened the most at the haunted house loses, winner gets... Hm... Winner gets to pick the next movie!"
"But you'll probably win, you aren't that freaked out by things jumping out at you." I informed her. "Is that fair?"
"Lewis, I'm pretty sure you'll do just fine. You know everything there will be fake and the people jumping out at you will just be actors with tons of makeup on. It's nothing to be afraid of!" Vivi beamed, trying her best to reassure me.
"Fine," I sighed in defeat. "But I'm definitely going to lose."
"If only Arthur was here, you'd have a better chance of winning!" she joked, spinning around in my chair.
"Yeah... If we're ever going to try this ghost hunting thing, than we're going to have to figure out how to teach Arthur to repress his emotions. You said earlier you thought I would be able to teach him, but how? What exactly do I have to teach? You're the expert here," I confided.
The blue haired girl stopped to ponder for a moment and then answered, "Well... I guess I could help out in teaching him. I already know how to block my emotions pretty well most of the time. It's like cutting yourself off from the internet to try to study for a test, except your discarding all of your emotions to focus on ghost hunting instead. I'm not saying you have to become soulless, but showing negative feelings, like fear or hatred, can lead to danger. I learned from my brother that entities, even the ones that aren't demons, can feed off of powerful emotions to gain more energy or even possess the person harboring all of those feelings. So for Arthur, we'd have to focus on blocking out anxiety and give him some more... Willpower. Yeah, that's the word."
"But how? How exactly do you do that? Just drop all of your emotions like that, it sounds difficult." I stated, scratching my head. "I don't understand."
"You just try to repress them, like how you repress an embarrassing or unpleasant memory. However, that might be a bit difficult for Arthur, so maybe we'd just have to try to calm him down. We'd have to see how he'd manage in an investigation first, though. Does he even know about our ghost hunting plan?" Vivi asked in return.
"Sort of," I responded. "He knows that we both have a passion for ghost hunting and the horror genre, but I never said specifically that we were going to include him and his dog in on our group. It would be nice if he waited a little longer to see if we can trust him before inviting him to join us, even though he does have a good amount of equipment."
"You say that, but you agreed to join me in my dream after only knowing me for like, a day!" my blue haired friend pointed out.
"Huh..." I trailed off. "You've got an excellent point there, but I'm not sure. Can't we just wait a little longer and bond with him first?"
"Fine," she groaned dramatically, getting a few laughs out of me. She instantly perked up and continued, "I don't know if we'll ever get to start our own official paranormal investigation group, but it could totally work out and that thought makes me happier than you could ever imagine. I have the whole thing pictured in my mind! We'll have our first investigation at that house your cousin mentioned and we'll do research and ask it questions and maybe we'll even get physical evidence! And then if we ever become popular, we'll travel all over the country and check out all sorts of spooky places! Like haunted castles, and houses, and lighthouses, and yachts and ritual sites and I don't know where else, but what I do know is that it'll be amazing!"
Sighing, I replied, "That sounds pretty interesting. I don't go on a lot of vacations, and when I do, they're not that far away. I would really enjoy going on a huge road trip like that. With the ghosts included. You'll have to teach me how all of that ghost hunting gear works though. It seems like I'm the only one who doesn't have a clue!"
"Haha, don't worry it's not that difficult to understand. The mechanics aren't too complicated-" Vivi began.
"Vivi! Lewis! Everyone!" my mom hollered loudly from the kitchen. "Come out and get ready, we're leaving!"
A huge, cheesy smile flickered across Vivi's face as we both stood up and made a run for the door. I slipped on one of my purple windbreakers and Vivi eagerly put on her blue Mary-Janes and equally blue bubble coat. "Oh, I'm so excited!" she cheered as we stepped out into the teeth-chattering cold. "This is gonna be spectacular!"
"Maybe," I added as I yanked the car door open. "We won't know for sure until we get there!"
"I bet it's gonna be amazing! And I'm totally going to win that competition!" she said, a smug grin spreading across her face as she buckled in her seatbelt.
"Oh yeah, try me!" I chuckled, putting my hands on my hips. "We'll see about that!"
"I'm totally going to lose!" I cried worriedly as we got into the everlasting line for entering the haunted house. Well it wasn't everlasting, but there had to be at least fifty people in front of us. To entertain the people standing in line, they had a zombie trail up and down the line, stalking quietly and then groaning and shaking a frighteningly loud tin lunchbox with the word 'TIPS' scrawled on it. How do I know this? Because the zombie snuck up behind me and clanged the tin lunchbox right next to my ear.
Vivi, bundled up in her winter jacket, was still laughing maniacally from the zombie incident. "Oh my gosh! The look on your face! Absolutely priceless! You didn't even see him and he just appeared out of nowhere! And you screeched like an alpaca!"
"Hey, I actually like alpacas, you know. They're pretty fluffy. And adorable. But that doesn't matter right now! I'm gonna get the piss scared out of me once this line shortens!" I rambled, not worrying if my parents heard me swear from farther up in the line. When we bought the admission tickets, my parents got in line but Vivi had to use the bathroom, so they told me to just wait for her and that we'd go on our own, since they 'didn't want to interrupt our time.' I insisted it was okay but they just turned their heads.
"Well, that'll be fun to watch!" the blue haired girl chuckled jokingly. "Man, I should've given a tip to that zombie for scaring you so badly! He deserved it! And alpacas? What's so cute about them?"
I put my hand in a sassy manner and snapped, "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Alpacas are the cutest little creatures in the world, excuse you! They're fluffy and tall and they make weird faces and they're just-"
"But they have weird buck teeth and are like small, awkward llamas! How is that cute?" she argued.
"You have your opinions and I have mine," I retorted, stressing the 'I'. "I think alpacas are soft, fuzzy bundles of joy and I can think that if I want to."
Vivi exhaled, "Okay then, I get where you're coming from but it's still weird that you're trying to defend alpacas. Anyway, before this quarrel gets too out of hand, I'm gonna go ahead and change the subject. Are you a fan of anime? Just asking."
Shivering from the strong wind, I chattered, "Not really, but I have seen a few episodes of Pokemon when I was younger. And I'm familiar with popular shows, like Naruto, Fairy Tale, and Sailor Moon."
"Oh god, Sailor Moon," my blue haired friend giggled. "My mom will never let go of that show. I asked you because my mom and I like to watch anime together often. She actually got me into it by showing me a few shows. We just chill out on the couch and have episode binges. So far we've seen Soul Eater, Inuyasha, Fairy Tale, and of course, Sailor Moon."
"Nice. You're going to force me to join you now, huh?" I jested, putting my hands on my hips.
"But of course! It's my duty to expose you to the wonders of anime! I've also watched a few other series on my own, like Another and Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni." she informed me.
"Higurashi No what?" I asked, helplessly confused. I took note of the line growing much shorter. We were going to have to go inside soon.
"Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni, silly! It's a psychological horror anime, and it's so creepy! I like creepy though, so that's okay. Although the finger nail ripping scene came as a shock to me." she explained rather casually.
I nearly choked on my own spit. "Nail ripping scene!?"
"Oh look, the line's shrunken down!" she pointed out eagerly, looking back at me with a bright smile on her face. Sighing, I followed along as she dragged me to the front of the line. Well, almost the front of the line. There were about ten people in front of us, waiting and chatting about the haunted house.
Listening to the screams that emitted from the building, I nervously asked Vivi, "Am I going to have a heart attack or something in there?"
"Who knows?" she shrugged. "I've never been inside. But don't worry, I'll protect you!"
"It should be the other way around, but okay." I chuckled lightly. "You're pretty small though, I don't know how that would do against so many ghosts."
The blue haired girl smacked my arm and exclaimed, striking a battle pose, "Hey! I'm pretty strong for my size! Don't believe me? I'll challenge you to arm wrestling!"
"Vivi, we don't even have a table to arm wrestle on!" I laughed along with her, trying to get the pressure of the haunted house off my mind. "You can prove me wrong later when we get back to my house!"
"NEXT!" the attendant standing next to the entrance of the haunted house practically screamed in my ear, making me jump. "Get in, you're holding up the line!"
"Oh dear, I-" I began as Vivi shoved me inside, giggling, and we began our tour of the house of horrors. The walls were pretty plain, besides being stained with (hopefully) fake blood through the whole, stretching hallway. I tried to walk casually, making a foolish attempt at hiding my panic from Vivi. She strolled along next to me, all smiley and chipper. I didn't know what was creepier, the bloodcurdling screams further down the hall or my friend's enthusiasm.
Out of nowhere, a panel opened up from the wall and a demented looking clown popped out, waving his (hopefully fake) ax all over the place. I jolted backward, eyes wide as saucers, getting a few chuckles out of Vivi. She was completely unaffected by the murderous clown. "Dude, that one was so obvious! You didn't see the wall panel?"
I anxiously shook my head ad we continued down the hallway. "I'm so going to lose this competition.." I muttered to myself. We walked through a doorway with streamers hanging from the top into an area that looked like a hospital room. I cringed as the doctor began 'sawing' his patient in half as she screamed bloody murder. So that's where the shrieks were coming from. The scene was pretty gory, but the blood was obviously fake compared to the blood stain on the couch I had to wash earlier. The screams quickly died down and the doctor glanced up at us with a devious, well-rehearsed glare. I nervously yanked Vivi out of the hospital room and we were met with yet another lengthy hallway.
"Oh god," I whined, preparing myself for another jump scare. I uneasily scuttled down the hall, Vivi following close behind, laughing at my panicked demeanor. We were about halfway down the hall when I turned to look at my blue haired friend and out of the corner of my eye I saw him. He was at the very back of the hall, behind Vivi, crouched on all fours. A werewolf (or hopefully just an actor in a costume). He broke into a four-legged sprint towards us and I cried out in fear, "Oh god, Vivi! Run for your life!" as I grabbed her arm and dashed down the hallway.
"Huh?" she turned around to spot him catching up to us. "Whoa! Make a run for it!"
We finally exited through the next doorway and the werewolf snarled in defeat as he crawled back to his hiding spot, waiting patiently for the next victims to come along. Panting, I took in the scenario of the next hallway's decor. It looked like a cave, with wallpaper tacked on the walls, sounds of water dripping emitting from who knows where, and the dim lights and made stalactites on the ceiling. I shuddered from the calming, yet eerie atmosphere the 'cave' gave off. A slight breeze blew on my neck, making me shiver. Vivi seemed equally skeptical, taking in the interesting setting. "Wow," she breathed in awe. "They did a good job on this room.. Now we just have to wait for something to pop out at us!"
That's when I noticed a light flicker at the end of the hallway. Vivi was too distracted by the decorations to catch the mistake. But I knew. There was going to be a scare at the end of the hallway, and now I was prepared. Yet for some reason, my chest still ached with panic as we strolled down the fake cave hallway. I was busy focusing on whatever was going to scare us when I felt small, delicate fingers lace with my large, meaty ones. My whole face grew blood red with blush. Vivi was holding my hand. A girl was holding MY hand. Why? I glanced down to confirm that my blue haired friend was in fact, holding my hand.
And I felt more relaxed, for some unknown reason. Even though it was Vivi, and we obviously weren't in that kind of relationship, it was still nice to hold someone's hand after not being able to have such contact with someone for eons. Shaking my head, I glanced over at her with a confused expression, as if to ask what was going on. The small, blue haired girl gazed back up at me with a small smile playing on her lips and a twinkle in her already bright eyes that I had never noticed before. I blushed even harder, but quickly turned my attention to the spot where the light flashed. And just as I had predicted, a ghastly miner revealed himself and clanked his pickax right in front of an unsuspecting Vivi's face. She let out a sharp cry and backed up, stumbling and falling on her rear end.
"God damnit!" she cursed, her peaceful mood instantly diminishing. I helped her back up on her feet and she brushed off her skirt. "I can't believe I didn't notice that! Gosh, that was thrilling!"
"Looks like I might have a chance at winning after all," I remarked smugly.
"Shut up!" she retorted as we left the cave hallway. "You were distracting me!"
"I was distracting you? Lies! You were too busy with whatever that was to notice the miner's headlamp flickering!" I argued, raising one eyebrow.
"Bullshit, no lights were flickering!" Vivi put her hands on her hips dramatically. She then burst into giggles, unable to take herself seriously.
"Exactly," I snapped, chuckling a bit myself. "Anyway, we should pay attention before something else jumps out at us."
This next room we were in was decorated like a cemetery, and it looked pretty poor compared to the cave hallway we were just in. Foam graves stuck up from the ground and strobe lights dimly illuminated the room, flickering on and off repeatedly. It made me slightly dizzy, for who knows why. "Ooh, spooky!" my blue haired friend commented, admiring the cheap decorations. "I wonder what's lurking around here..."
"Probably a ghost. Or a chainsaw murderer," I laughed scanning the area for any give aways as to where the actors were hiding.
"Yeah, totally. This is cool though. Lots of diverse decorations and scare tactics. It's really cool and you never know what to expect each time." she guffawed, poking one of the foam gravestones curiously.
A tiny voice echoed from behind us, "Will you play with me?"
I whipped around to find a short girl dressed up as a small child, well, short meaning about Vivi's height. She had a frilly, checkered, and notably blood spattered dress on and brown pigtails and makeup freckles. She held a bloody teddy bear with a completely severed head in her hands. "Will you play with me?" the girl asked, tugging on the side of my windbreaker.
Blushing, I began to stammer, "I-I uh, I d-d-dunno-"
"Play with me!" she demanded in a chillingly demonic tone. "Play with me, play with me, play with me, play with me! Now!"
I quickly backed away and quietly asked Vivi, "Can we please go now?"
"But it's getting good!" she whined. The actress stopped her small tantrum and took a step towards us.
"What'cha talking about?" the girl asked curiously, picking at the spot where her stuffed animal's head used to be. "Can I join? Do you want to play Hide and Seek?"
"Uhm, Vivi..." I mumbled nervously, glancing at her for help. "Can. We. Go?"
"No! Don't leave me!" the girl sobbed. Her crying quickly turned into malicious screeching as I began to pull my friend towards the next doorway. "Come back here! Don't leave me alone! We have to play! Play with me!"
We quickly made our escape before the skilled actress could begin whacking us with her teddy bear. Panting, I crouched down for just a second, trying to rest and catch my breath. "They keep you on your toes here," I sighed exasperatedly.
"Right," Vivi panted. "Phew, that was fun. Man, if I don't ever become a ghost hunter my second job choice would be working here! It must be so much fun scaring people!"
"Eh, not really. Some people could get so scared that they'd attack the actors, which definitely isn't enjoyable." I said, wiping my brow and sweeping my messy purple hair out of my eyes. "Just going as a customer here is tiring!"
"You've got yourself a point," she nodded as we strolled down yet another long hallway. This hallway was decorated like the very first one, mostly plain with blood spatters all over the wall. I glanced around to see if there were any panels on the walls, but I couldn't find any. I examined my right hand, which was still warm from holding Vivi's hand with it. Speaking of which...
"What was up with holding my hand earlier?" I asked, giving my blue haired friend a skeptical look.
"What, I can't hold a guy's hand without being automatically interrogated? My hands were cold! And besides, it just felt right! I'm sorry if that was weird for you, okay? I just thought that maybe you'd feel a little more comfortable in here if you had a hand..." Vivi muttered sheepishly.
Sighing, I replied, "Okay, I appreciate the thought. But... Never mind. Let's just move on."
We worked our way through several more hallways and scares. We saw so many different rooms that we lost count of how many we had been in. Also, Vivi was still winning the competition, but she had gotten a few good scares out of it. We both got seriously caught off guard in one room with a banshee who had a great set of lungs on her. She shrieked so loud behind us that I thought my ears would bleed. Besides the banshee and a few other exceptions, Vivi was getting startled way less than I was. There was this one room with a row of jail cells and the psychotic inmates would stick their hands through the bars and try to touch you, screaming and shouting. The catch though, was that they managed to hide out of your line of sight in the cells and then appear out of nowhere, ready to attack. That frightened me so much I was surprised I didn't piss myself. It surely was entertaining for Vivi.
She was still howling with laughter as we left yet another frightful room, where I nearly had the life scared out of me by an actor in a very detailed demon costume. Rubbing my eyes, I whined, "Why are they always going after me?"
"They... They just do!" my blue haired friend exclaimed in between bouts of maniacal laughter. She put a hand on my shoulder and breathed, laughing out, "Gosh Lew, you're shaking! Oh that was beautiful! You get startled so easily! Just by things popping out at you!"
"Shut up! He was right in my face, what was I supposed to do?" I argued jokingly. We continued to bicker through another elongated hallway, not caring about what was to come. Vivi was laughing all over again from my petty arguments and completely red face.
"You blush all the damn time!" she cackled, probably losing oxygen from all of that laughing. Her face began to turn a light pink as she continued, "And your face gets so red! You blush when you're angry, when you're sad, when you're embarrassed! Hell, you're blushing right now!"
"Vivi, are you okay?"
"Just fine, why do you-" she began. A chainsaw began whirring at top volume and a person in a Jason costume jumped out of a panel in the wall, holding a real, running chainsaw. I reacted before I knew what I was doing. I shut my eyes, letting out a yelp and practically squeezed poor Vivi to death. She screamed too, but her reaction wasn't nearly as crazy as mine.
I had freaked out and hugged my blue haired friend for protection, even though it obviously wouldn't do much. The warmth radiating from her was a bit comforting, considering that I was freezing cold. The obnoxiously loud chainsaw noises came to a stop and I relaxed, letting out a shaky breath. I was almost lower than Arthur when it came to being startled by jump scares, which is somewhat frightening. Now, I felt better and I didn't feel like letting go, but I did for my sake of humiliation.
"God, that scared the shit out of me!" Vivi sighed in relief, licking her lips anxiously. "I would've laughed at your reaction but gosh... That was terrifying! I still have the chills, Lew! I didn't even see the wall panel! I was so caught off guard!"
I tried to say something, but the most I could manage was a tiny groan. We quietly headed towards the door, which had a giant 'EXIT' sign above it. It. Was. Finally. Over. The second Vivi and I stepped outside, we were met with my parents, holding a plastic bag with who knows what inside.
"So we stopped by the little shop where the photos are bought," my mom began.
"Photos? What photos?" I asked, my stomach dropping yet again. She pulled two 6x4 photos out of the bag. One was of her and my father, both with horrified expressions in the chainsaw murderer hallway. My stomach sank even deeper. The other photo was of Vivi and I. It was taken right before I reacted. My blue haired friend was screaming and I stared into the camera with hilariously frightful eyes. There were no photographs of me trying to cower behind Vivi, thank god.
"Your eyes!" my friend laughed as we slowly started making our way towards the car. "Lew, you're so un-photogenic it's funny!"
"Yeah," I exhaled deeply. "I know."
(A/N: We hit thirty reviews, guys! Gosh, I was so happy to see the 30th last night I had to cover my mouth to keep from screaming XD yep, I'm a total weenie. But still! Thank you all sooooo soooo much for commenting on my work and putting up with my shit hiatuses and everything! I just want each and every single one of you to know that I'm grateful for y'all. Ohhhhh. Well, I'm starting Chapter 15 today so hopefully I'll have it up by tomorrow or Tuesday... Until then, I'll see you in the next chapter!)